The Goshen City Women’s national Championship kicked off on Monday at Bingu National Stadium with two play-off matches which saw Lilongwe giants Silver Strikers Ladies and Civil Service Women Football Club progressing to the quarterfinal stage after edging past CY Sisters and Mighty Wanderers ladies respectively.
The Servants were through after beating Mighty Wanderers Queens 1-0. But it was what happened earlier that caught our attention as the Bankers ladies emerged 16-0 winners over Northern Region outfit CY Sisters.
The Bankers were simply magnificent as CY Sisters were pummelled. from the first to the last Andrew Chikhosi’ side were imperious, pouring goals at their will.
But conceding 16 goals for the five time Northern Region FAM Cup champions was very surprising to many and embarrassing for CY Sisters.
However, the result reflects the financial gap between teams in Malawi’s Women’s elite league. The existing huge gap is the current determiner of results.
Indeed it was the game where CY Sisters lost it before kickoff.
“We had poor preparations, we have so many financial challenges as a team and it’s always difficult to keep the team together for a long time” confessed CY Sisters coach Aaron Kamanga.
On the other hand, Silver Strikers Ladies boasts as one of the well sponsored teams with all resources available, to the extent that they roped CY Sisters best players Chikondi and Mphatso Gondwe who also featured and contributed to the humiliation of their former team.
The financial challenges has directly affected the team’s performance on the pitch as it opts for low quality players and technical team.
Comparing the two sides, Silver Strikers technical is privileged to be led by experienced and well known coach Andrew Chikhosi while CY Sister’s are under a FAM C holder Aaron Kamanga.
It wasn’t strange seeing Silver Strikers Ladies outplaying CY Sisters in every aspect. The Mzuzu side struggled to guard against transition, they had disorganized defensive and midfield shape, error prone and their uninspiring and tactless display exposed the weakness of their technical panel.
Their players too lacks quality as well, their heights and physic is also pulling back their progress.
Puting his views, Soccer analyst Joseph Kansampha advised teams to start exploring ways of finding financial partners.
“Now with the coming in of Goshen City, as Sponsors of the League, it’s now up to the Clubs to wakeup and explore ways of finding partnerships with different companies. If all teams are well sponsored I think the gap will be reduced” said Kansampha
